Olympus photo division losses double

According to the latest Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine, Olympus losses nine months to Dec 2012 doubled from those of the previous year. AP notes Olympus's aggressive cost cutting strategy that will lead to a 7% decrease in their workforce by 2014. AP also notes that Olympus implied that they will be reducing their DSLR presence.

I would love to be proved wrong, but at the moment I still think the end of 2013 will be the countdown to backtracking on this forum rather than an E7.

According to the latest Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine, Olympus losses nine months to Dec 2012 doubled from those of the previous year. AP notes Olympus's aggressive cost cutting strategy that will lead to a 7% decrease in their workforce by 2014. AP also notes that Olympus implied that they will be reducing their DSLR presence.

I would love to be proved wrong, but at the moment I still think the end of 2013 will be the countdown to backtracking on this forum rather than an E7.

This is not new news. I doubt these losses have anything to do with 43rds unless they have been building an army of bodies with no plans to sell them

No I suspect this is a result of their releasing higher end P&S cameras such as the XZ-2 and higher end tough cameras and havent seen any real sales.

So, a question arises, your division is losing money, do you retreat entirely to m43rds or potentially sell a camera to a large number of relatively captive customers? The fact that Olympus was aware of these losses when they made their rather public statements about the next body, I suspect it was already considered.

There are so many Olympus users here who now need to be proved right, they have been crying the end is nigh for a long time, and yet, things keep happening. Most likely we will see a new DSLR, maybe 2, possibly with a new look. IF Olympus has solved the AF issue, for example, with a moving SLT and EVF, or with on sensor PDAF etc... Or even with a fully functioning AF adapter, we will see it. If not, and I suspect not, we will see a DSLR.

Be sure note your last paragraph considering how vocal you have been about Olympus future. Who would I listen to? A forum poster who seems to feel no camera is coming, or the company who will sell me the camera telling me one is on the way?

Abraham

-- hide signature --

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” -Ansel Adamsblog.alatchinphotography(dot)com

Building on the promise Olympus has made about continuing to support Four Thirds users, Terada suggests the wait may nearly be over: 'Direction-wise, we'd like to produce products for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds within this year. Because we have to provide a product for users with SHG and HG lenses. And there are people using E400, 500 and 600-series DSLRs, we have to provide products for them to keep enjoying their photography.'

'For those users AF speed is important and a suitable finder is necessary. And also it needs to be the right size - the benefit of Micro Four Thirds and Four Thirds is compact size. We have to provide those things to benefit those users. One of the benefits of DSLR is continuous autofocus. In this respect, we have to promise total AF performance in future.'

They can be confident about image quality, he says: ''They already know image quality from the OM-D. Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds sensors are the same size, so they can imagine that.'

THEN, when your article became big news and the chest beating began about "the end" Olympus quickly said this:

Olympus is denying reports that it is ceasing its production of DSLR cameras. In its official statementOlympus says there is no truth to these reports and the company will continue to offer DSLR cameras alongside its popular mirrorless camera range. The reports came as Olympus promised 'extensive business restructuring' in its imaging division, above and beyond the downsizing already taking place as part of its 'medium term vision.' The company announced that it expects its camera business to lose around ¥16 billion (~$170 million) in this financial year - double its forecasts.

In our recent interview with Olympus' Toshi Terada, Manager, Product Planning SLR products, had confirmed the company's commitment to its existing DSLR owners stating, 'There are people using E-400, 500 and 600-series DSLRs, we have to provide products for them to keep enjoying their photography.'

WHILE the official statement is a bit garbled by Google, it seems they want people to know they are doing something. The specific mention of smaller cameras leads me to believe they may have something up their sleeve. Either the 1 body will be smaller, cheaper but very capable (ALA OMD) or they will produce 2.

-- hide signature --

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” -Ansel Adamsblog.alatchinphotography(dot)com

No I suspect this is a result of their releasing higher end P&S cameras such as the XZ-2 and higher end tough cameras and havent seen any real sales.

Agree.

So, a question arises, your division is losing money, do you retreat entirely to m43rds or potentially sell a camera to a large number of relatively captive customers?

I would agree they have captive customers but I would question 'large number'. In business terms, I would probably use something like 'tiny number' or possibly more technically 'teeny tiny number'.

The fact that Olympus was aware of these losses when they made their rather public statements about the next body, I suspect it was already considered.

There is a report they said DSLR and if they did, then you are right. All the actual reports I have seen from OLY have seen said 'product' which does not necessarily signify a DSLR.

Most likely we will see a new DSLR, maybe 2, possibly with a new look. IF Olympus has solved the AF issue, for example, with a moving SLT and EVF, or with on sensor PDAF etc... Or even with a fully functioning AF adapter, we will see it. If not, and I suspect not, we will see a DSLR.

A fully functioning AF adapter or m4/3rds body would be welcome and, if they can do it, a likely development as it puts their 4/3rds lens investment back into play.

Be sure note your last paragraph considering how vocal you have been about Olympus future. Who would I listen to? A forum poster who seems to feel no camera is coming, or the company who will sell me the camera telling me one is on the way?

I am well conditioned to not being listened to on this forum. I've been told directly that I'm not a camera executive and therefore don't know what I'm talking about. This occurred when I said the E3 would signify the end of the professional 4/3rds market. I note that only a handful of pros remain, and none are high fliers.

When I said that m4/3rds would mean the end of 4/3rds investment I was told I was wrong, Oly knows what they are doing, they won't abandon another system, I'm not a camera executive (again) and, well, here we are.

If it were not for the vague reports that Oly said they would invest in a 4/3rds body, I would be more certain. As it is, I'm only 95% sure.

Feel free to ignore me as most do on this forum. I should call myself Cassandra.

No I suspect this is a result of their releasing higher end P&S cameras such as the XZ-2 and higher end tough cameras and havent seen any real sales.

Agree.

So, a question arises, your division is losing money, do you retreat entirely to m43rds or potentially sell a camera to a large number of relatively captive customers?

I would agree they have captive customers but I would question 'large number'. In business terms, I would probably use something like 'tiny number' or possibly more technically 'teeny tiny number'.

The fact that Olympus was aware of these losses when they made their rather public statements about the next body, I suspect it was already considered.

There is a report they said DSLR and if they did, then you are right. All the actual reports I have seen from OLY have seen said 'product' which does not necessarily signify a DSLR.

Most likely we will see a new DSLR, maybe 2, possibly with a new look. IF Olympus has solved the AF issue, for example, with a moving SLT and EVF, or with on sensor PDAF etc... Or even with a fully functioning AF adapter, we will see it. If not, and I suspect not, we will see a DSLR.

A fully functioning AF adapter or m4/3rds body would be welcome and, if they can do it, a likely development as it puts their 4/3rds lens investment back into play.

Be sure note your last paragraph considering how vocal you have been about Olympus future. Who would I listen to? A forum poster who seems to feel no camera is coming, or the company who will sell me the camera telling me one is on the way?

I am well conditioned to not being listened to on this forum. I've been told directly that I'm not a camera executive and therefore don't know what I'm talking about. This occurred when I said the E3 would signify the end of the professional 4/3rds market. I note that only a handful of pros remain, and none are high fliers.

When I said that m4/3rds would mean the end of 4/3rds investment I was told I was wrong, Oly knows what they are doing, they won't abandon another system, I'm not a camera executive (again) and, well, here we are.

If it were not for the vague reports that Oly said they would invest in a 4/3rds body, I would be more certain. As it is, I'm only 95% sure.

Feel free to ignore me as most do on this forum. I should call myself Cassandra.

I saw the brown sticky stuff hitting the cooling device in 2007, I moved to Nikon but still kept a foothold in case I felt the situation changed, I bought a E600 which till now has been their penultimate DSLR.......I feel the time for talking is over, it's becoming like Duke Nukem forever, lots of updates but no product, I do feel disappointed because 4/3rds had the chance of being awesome beyond words.

According to the latest Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine, Olympus losses nine months to Dec 2012 doubled from those of the previous year. AP notes Olympus's aggressive cost cutting strategy that will lead to a 7% decrease in their workforce by 2014. AP also notes that Olympus implied that they will be reducing their DSLR presence.

I would love to be proved wrong, but at the moment I still think the end of 2013 will be the countdown to backtracking on this forum rather than an E7.

...enjoy this forum. Now it's just a battle between naysayers and those who are hoping for the E-7. I'm in the latter camp. I think it should be mandatory for all naysayers to issue a formal apology here on the forum as soon as a new DSLR is announced.

So, a question arises, your division is losing money, do you retreat entirely to m43rds or potentially sell a camera to a large number of relatively captive customers?

I would agree they have captive customers but I would question 'large number'. In business terms, I would probably use something like 'tiny number' or possibly more technically 'teeny tiny number'.

What amuses me is your point here is speculation. We dont know how many E-5's they sold, or E-30's or E-3's, wo dont know how many are still in use... But around the time of the E-30 the imaging divisions numbers look much better than they do today.

Add to that the E-XXX users and i think teeny tiny is just an humongous exaggeration on your part. If there was no-one to sell it to, who is making all the fuss when there are rumors of them ceasing production... who is making enough noise to make a large corporation issue an immediate response? 10 guys on DPR?

The fact that Olympus was aware of these losses when they made their rather public statements about the next body, I suspect it was already considered.

There is a report they said DSLR and if they did, then you are right. All the actual reports I have seen from OLY have seen said 'product' which does not necessarily signify a DSLR.

Splitting hairs. hey have used the words DSLR, AF and VF. Could it be an SLT? Sure. But I think even olympus knows they cant do a Sony and strip 30% of the light. Could it be mirrorless... No. Noone has managed what Nikon has managed with their 1 series. And even that has limitations.

A fully functioning AF adapter or m4/3rds body would be welcome and, if they can do it, a likely development as it puts their 4/3rds lens investment back into play.

A DSLR also does the same thing. But most of my 43rds lenses are used all the time.

Be sure note your last paragraph considering how vocal you have been about Olympus future. Who would I listen to? A forum poster who seems to feel no camera is coming, or the company who will sell me the camera telling me one is on the way?

I am well conditioned to not being listened to on this forum. I've been told directly that I'm not a camera executive and therefore don't know what I'm talking about. This occurred when I said the E3 would signify the end of the professional 4/3rds market. I note that only a handful of pros remain, and none are high fliers.

I would imagine most of the professionals have left DPR because of the tone of this forum. You dont get listened to because most of your contributions have been negative, and noone likes a negative nancy. Look at this post... It is weeks old news, was discussed at length here and even on the home page of DPR... And you rehash it.

When I said that m4/3rds would mean the end of 4/3rds investment I was told I was wrong, Oly knows what they are doing, they won't abandon another system, I'm not a camera executive (again) and, well, here we are.

Where are we? Olympus said they will not support the E-XXX, and they havent. The E-XX was a one of body, one body does not create a pattern of judgement, and that leaves the E-X which seems to be on schedule for release... Possibly with murmurs of a second body (Terada's comment about E-XXX users).

As far as I am concerned, and as far as most people seem to comment there are three lenses missing from the 43rds suite, the 100mm macro (well served for many years by the sigma 105, I had one) a 300mm f4 (EC-2 on a 150mm f2) and a 100-400mm f4-5.6 (EC-1.4/2 on a 50-200)... So even with those gaps it wasnt a disaster.

Missing small fast primes? Buy a m43rds camera... That is drowning in small primes, i mean drenched in primes from everywhere and everyone... if you need so many primes, what will an EPM2 set you back?

So what is missing... an updated body. Olympus could very well knock one out of the park and reinvigorate the system with 1 or 2 good bodies... A revised E-X, brought down in size and price, and an E-XX/XXX Sized around the E-520 but with very attractive looks... Imagine an OMD-E700, SLR styled body from the heyday of photography with an OVF (my word)... They would sell a few of those I imagine just for the looks.

The take the OMD, throw it into a redesign E-30 with weatherproofing 100% evf etc and a bunch of new bells and whistles, you would see everyone with a 12-60 and 50-200 buyone... everyone holding onto a 150mm f2, 14-35 or 35-100 would buy one... People from m43rds who now aspire to be "pros" and want a DSLR will consider an Olympus product, and some will buy them...

If it were not for the vague reports that Oly said they would invest in a 4/3rds body, I would be more certain. As it is, I'm only 95% sure.

95% sure... That 5% doubt seems to heavily influence your communication on the subject. From the standpoint of an investment, even one more body gets me more out of my lenses and more value from that lens purchase. If one day Olympus stops making cameras... the longer I have had a body to use them on, the more value I have got from my lens purchase. Olympus knows this, they know this is how camera users think.

Feel free to ignore me as most do on this forum. I should call myself Cassandra.

No need to call yourself Cassandra. The R&D is there, it is constantly being developed for m43rds, and developed well... The new IBIS is a tour-de-force technology, I was filming my son swimming at 150mm (300mm eq) with smooth buttery footage coming from the handheld camera... There are technologies in a new E-XXX or E-X that would, believe it or not, make users from other brands switch.

-- hide signature --

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” -Ansel Adamsblog.alatchinphotography(dot)com

pffff sorry dudes, i just put on my pink glasses and dream on of a super 2014 with a E7 or OMD-EM7 capable of handling my 43 swd glass very well...

And i can not give a bleeeeep if it is going to be used by a pro.... Definition of a Pro, someone who makes money with his photos, there was one last time on dpr doing it with an iphone... I simply want to enjoy making photos, and have some gear which i do not have to worry about tooo much

...enjoy this forum. Now it's just a battle between naysayers and those who are hoping for the E-7. I'm in the latter camp. I think it should be mandatory for all naysayers to issue a formal apology here on the forum as soon as a new DSLR is announced.

I agree.

However to to be fair, lets also have a formal apology NOW from all those people who, upon the announcement of microfourthirds, turned around and said "naa .... nothing to worry about ... Olympus has got more than enough capacity to continue developing BOTH systems ... there won't be any slowdown in traditional 4/3 development ...."

Well ... go complain to Amateur Photographer magazine. I got my copy this evening when I got home, and Rovingtim is just reporting what's on the front page of the BRAND new edition this week.

Are they rehashing old news, or is this worse losses AGAIN on top of the disaster previously announced? its hard to know reading it, but it seems to suggest that they knew there were going to be losses, but its even worse than previously forcast

Well ... go complain to Amateur Photographer magazine. I got my copy this evening when I got home, and Rovingtim is just reporting what's on the front page of the BRAND new edition this week.

Are they rehashing old news, or is this worse losses AGAIN on top of the disaster previously announced? its hard to know reading it, but it seems to suggest that they knew there were going to be losses, but its even worse than previously forcast

?

February 12, 2013 9:39 am

Olympus trims full-year outlook

Digital camera downturn takes toll on Japanese group

By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo

Olympus on Tuesday revised down its full-year forecasts as the downturn in the digital camera market took its toll on the medical equipment and camera maker as it strives to put an accounting scandal behind it.

For the year to the end of March, Olympus now expects sales to be Y740bn ($7.8bn), rather than the previously forecast Y757bn and net profit to be Y6bn, a quarter below its previous forecast of Y8bn.

The latest forecast reflects the decline in digital camera sales,which are forcing Olympus to take a Y3.7bn impairment loss on its imaging division’s assets in the full year.

This extraordinary loss comes after an impairment loss on the same business assets in the financial year to March 2012, which contributed to a Y49bn net loss for the full year.

Olympus, in common with other digital compact camera manufacturers, has suffered from a sharp contraction in the market, partly due to the rapid spread of smartphones, which incorporate cameras.

Sales of digital cameras have fallen about 25 per cent in the past two years alone, from a peak of 97m in the nine month to December, 2010 to 73m in the nine months to the end of last year, Olympus said.

During that time,Olympus’s share of the market has also fallen from more than 6 per cent to 4.8 per centin the first nine months of the fiscal year to March.

In the three months to the end of December,Olympus saw sales in imaging products fall 8 per cent, despite a strong 28 per cent rise in sales of its more expensive mirror-less cameras.

Consequently, the operating loss at the imaging division widened to Y4.3bn, larger than the Y3.6bn operating loss posted in the same quarter a year ago.

The third-quarter loss brings the cumulative loss in the imaging business so far this year to Y8.8bn. The group is forecasting a Y16bn operating loss for the division in the year to March 2013.

That follows an Y11bn operating loss for the imaging division last year, which followed a Y15bn group operating loss in the year to March 2011.

Olympus said it hadreduced personnel in its imaging business by more than 10 per cent since last March, adding that “further drastic reform is under review”.It plans to cut selling, general and administrative costs by Y4bn.

In sharp contrast, Olympus’s medical equipment business continues to perform strongly, with sales up 6 per cent to Y94bn in the third quarter, and operating profits up 1 per cent to Y19bn.

As a result, operating profits in the medical equipment division are up 19 per cent to Y56.4bn for the nine months, on sales of Y270bn, an increase of 7 per cent year on year.

Olympus forecasts medical equipment sales for the full year will be 12 per cent higher at Y390bn, and operating profits will be 23 per cent up at Y84bn.

Olympus, which has formed a capital tie-up in medical equipment with Sony, is working to shore up its balance sheet after a $1.7bn accounting scandal, in which executives were found to have hidden massive losses going back 20 years.

According to the latest Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine, Olympus losses nine months to Dec 2012 doubled from those of the previous year. AP notes Olympus's aggressive cost cutting strategy that will lead to a 7% decrease in their workforce by 2014. AP also notes that Olympus implied that they will be reducing their DSLR presence.

I would love to be proved wrong, but at the moment I still think the end of 2013 will be the countdown to backtracking on this forum rather than an E7.

I am not sure if Olympus knows what it is doing at this point.

I'm sure they know exactly what they are doing, it's just that some folks are not listening, or perhaps don't want there to be another Olympus DSLR as it would mean that their switch to Nikcanon and 4/3 lens dump was a mistake . . . . kind of like doomsday prophets being angry that the world didn't end according to their prediction.

Seeing as amateur photographer is a UK magazine why cant they report/convert Olympus figures to GBP...to make the figures sound worse/more dramatic or confusion as UK billion definition is different from USA definition of billion and why does Chris Cheeseman at AP keeping bringing up the financial scandal at EVERY possible opportunity???

Seeing as amateur photographer is a UK magazine why cant they report/convert Olympus figures to GBP...to make the figures sound worse/more dramatic or confusion as UK billion definition is different from USA definition of billion and why does Chris Cheeseman at AP keeping bringing up the financial scandal at EVERY possible opportunity???